Ricardo Viana Vargas is a specialist in project management and strategy implementation.
Years of Experience
Transformation Projects
Keynotes Presented
Managed Portfolio (USD)
Over the past 20 years, Ricardo has been responsible for more than 80 major transformation projects in several countries within the oil and gas, energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, information technology and finance industries, covering an investment portfolio of over 20 billion USD.
Print version
He is currently the Executive Director of the Brightline Initiative™, a coalition of leading global organizations from business, government and not for profit sectors, including the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Agile Alliance.
Brightline's mission is to provide a knowledge and networking platform that delivers insights and solutions to successfully bridge the gap between strategy development and strategy implementation.
From 2012 to 2016, Ricardo was the first Global Director of the Infrastructure and Project Management Group with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in Copenhagen, Denmark.
With a UNOPS portfolio of more than 1.2 billion dollars in projects, his work was primarily focused on improving the design, infrastructure and project management of humanitarian, peace-building and development projects all across the world, including but not limited to, Haiti, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Iraq and South Sudan.
Between 2007 and 2009, Ricardo served at the Board of Directors and was the first Latin American to be elected Chairman of the Board of the Project Management Institute.
PMI is the largest project management organization in the world, with close to 2.9 million members and certified professionals.
Vargas is a recognized reviewer of the PMI’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), the most relevant reference manual in the world for project management and also chaired its first official translation to Brazilian Portuguese.
Books & Podcasts
Ricardo Vargas has written fifteen books on the subject of project management, published in Portuguese and English with translations in French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Danish which have sold over 300,000 copies globally.
He is also the host of one of the most relevant podcasts in the field, the 5 Minutes PM Podcast, published in English and Portuguese, with more than 4 millions views.
International Recognition
Ricardo received several awards and recognitions through his career. In 2005, he received the PMI Distinguished Award, in 2011, the PMI IS CoP Professional Development Award and in 2015, the AACE Total Quality Management Award for his contributions to the development of project management.
He has also received the PMI Professional Development Product of the Year Award for the PMDome® workshop, considered the best project management capacity development solution in the world.
In 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, Ricardo was also awarded by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for his work with the Microsoft Project.
He is a chemical engineer by trade, holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering from UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais) and is a doctoral student in Civil Engineering at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF). Ricardo also holds a Master Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University.
In addition to the list of accreditations, Vargas has attended the Program on Negotiation for Executives at Harvard Law School, the Advanced Project Management Program at Stanford University and has an executive formation in Strategy and Innovation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Ricardo lives with his family in Portugal and spends most of his time traveling around the world, helping organizations to improve business results.
Short bio Print version
Ricardo Viana Vargas is a specialist in project management and strategy implementation. Over the past 20 years, he has been responsible for more than 80 major transformation projects in several countries, covering an investment portfolio of over 20 billion USD.
He is currently the Executive Director of the Brightline Initiative™, a coalition of leading global organizations from business, government and not for profit sectors, dedicated to provide a knowledge and networking platform that delivers insights and solutions to successfully bridge the gap between strategy development and strategy implementation.
From 2012 to 2016, Ricardo Global Director of the Infrastructure and Project Management Group with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
Vargas has written fifteen books on the subject of project management, and also host one of the most relevant podcasts in the field, the 5 Minutes PM Podcast, with more than 4 millions views.
About Macrosolutions
Macrosolutions was founded by Ricardo Vargas in 1999. Its main objective was to manage the copyright and royalties received for his publications and project management products. As time went on the company started to coordinate Ricardo's training courses and lectures.
In 2006, it became a project management consulting company with international operations in areas like oil and gas, energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, information technology and finances.